


it's not your fault

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-17
Updated: 2016-07-17
Packaged: 2018-07-24 12:37:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7508524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s not like Keith is intimidating, or that the idea of asking for help is particularly daunting either, but he’s looking at Hunk so intently - and Hunk is suddenly very glad that he’s got a few inches on him, so that he can look above Keith’s head into the air.</p>
            </blockquote>





	it's not your fault

**Author's Note:**

> the prompt: "hunk + comfort. like people comforting hunk. not the other way around."

Hunk’s not sure why he decided, after all this agonizing, to finally ask. Well, it’s not that he’s not sure why, but more like  _how_. He’d been pacing his room two minutes ago trying to conceptualize the conversation he is currently about to have, and even then he’d felt a little stumped. He’s not really even sure how he got here - but it’s impossible to back away at this point, so he just clears his throat and launches into it. “Do you think you could help me with something?”

Keith moves to meet Hunk in the doorway. “With what?”

Now Hunk is faltering again. It’s not like Keith is intimidating, or that the idea of asking for help is particularly daunting either, but he’s looking at Hunk so intently - and Hunk is suddenly very glad that he’s got a few inches on him, so that he can look above Keith’s head into the air. “It’s just, I need to practice-”

“Do you need help setting up the simulation in the training room?”

“No, Keith-”

“Should I get Shiro, then?” Hunk isn’t sure he can shake his head any harder, the ends of his headband are hitting his cheeks he’s shaking his head so hard.

“No, Keith, I want  _you…r_  help.” Hunk freezes. “With the practicing.”

Keith looks so surprised for a moment that Hunk almost thinks to take it back and leave before any more damage can be done. But then his eyebrows lower and his face settles into something more like apology. “Oh. I didn’t realize you meant it like that.”

Hunk flusters immediately. “It’s fine! But, um, are you free? To help?” Keith looks back into his own room, like he’s ascertaining the answer to that question by going through a mental checklist. He nods, and slips out the door to start walking towards the training room.

“So,” Hunk says, catching up. “I just need to work on my agility.” It feels strange to finally say it, after having thought about it so long.

Even before he’d thought to ask Keith for help, Hunk had tried other options. He trained by himself, read some old manuals that Coran showed him how to access on the computers, and he'd even asked Pidge - but the other paladin was trying to learn Altean programming and beef up the defense systems, so any plans they made together quickly fizzled out. The other avenues didn’t work the way he wanted them to - and maybe that’s on him, for wanting faster results, but Hunk gets antsy like anybody else - and Keith. He just felt like the automatic next choice.

(Well, he did think to ask Lance, but he also knows - even if Lance won’t admit it - that Keith is faster.)

“You should wear your suit,” Keith says, just as they’re about to enter the training room. “We can work without the simulation, but wearing your suit will help you get used to gaining speed in it.”

"Sounds good!" He offers up a little smile and Keith mirrors him, for the slightest second. It's gentle enough that Hunk thinks he can ignore the anxiety that starts to bubble up again. He doesn’t have a good feeling about this, but he’s tired of having these little premonitions, so he chalks it up as adrenaline and puts a little wish out there, that just for once, he doesn’t have to be right.

 

The training is hard.

Hunk expected it to be, especially wearing all the armor (even though it is light, for all that it does) but he didn’t completely expect how impatient he would get. His feet won’t work as quickly as he wants them to - he’s far from Keith’s level of speed and it seems so obvious when they’re in the room together and it’s the only thing to pay attention to. And Hunk lied. He expected all this, more than that  _knew_  it all right from the beginning but he wanted _so much_ for things to turn out otherwise.

He doesn’t want Keith to see him this desperate. It’s embarrassing, and Hunk knows it doesn’t have to be - there have been plenty of times people have told him something he does is embarrassing and it never fazed him, but to be breaking down and failing so blatantly in front of somebody else, much less Keith, feels so shameful. At first he think he can swallow it down and forget about it, but Keith keeps - and it’s not that it’s Keith’s fault, it’s Hunk’s, for continuing this - he just keeps catching Hunk, sweeping his feet out from under him or blocking him so _simply_ and the next time Hunk falls down he knows it’s the last time. He lets out a shaky breath and takes off his helmet, because he’s burning up and _why can’t he get it_.

“Hunk?” Keith is a step in front of him, looking down confused. “Did I hurt you?”

“No!” Hunk practically yells, he doesn’t mean to but suddenly everything is just bursting in him and he doesn’t know remember how to stop it. He wishes he wasn’t doing this right now but he’s always been an open crier and he doubts it’ll change now. “I’m just bad at this.”

“It takes practice, Hunk.”

“No, I can’t be as good as you. You’re-” He catches himself, smoothing his hands out on his pants and then on the floor and then he’s balling them up. He hits the ground once, keeps his eyes down in his lap and sniffles. “It’s not your fault. I’m sorry, it’s just me, I shouldn’t be saying anything about _you_ -”

“Hunk.”

“I don’t know how to be better than this and it’s frustrating, and it has nothing to do with you, just me. And I didn’t mean to raise my voice, but I don’t know what I’m doing-” He’s sobbing, and his face feels like a furnace and he’s not sure if Keith is walking away or if that’s just the sound of his fists hitting the floor, and he’s torn between feeling relief or horror that Keith could be walking away.

Then he feels hands on his face and before Keith can take him in with that intensity Hunk screws his eyes shut.

“Hunk. It’s not your fault, either.”

They sit there for a beat. Keith’s hands are cold, and at first he’s just holding the sides of Hunk’s face, but when Hunk doesn’t open his eyes right away they migrate up, to swipe away at the tears and smooth the wrinkles out of Hunk’s forehead. His thumbs finally settle right at Hunk’s cheekbones, and Hunk might just be imagining it to make something of the silence, but he can sort of feel Keith’s pulse.

He opens his eyes and Keith is there, just like Hunk knew ( _hoped_ ) he would be, looking much steadier than Hunk feels, but more than that, he looks certain.

He sort of wants to say thanks, but instead he puts his hands over Keith’s and clears his throat. “Can I give you a hug?”

And Keith, he blushes too. Hunk feels about a hundred times more shocked than him when the other actually _nods_. He leans forward and wraps his hands around Keith’s shoulders and Keith stumbles a bit, because he’s been squatting this entire time, but he eventually rearranges himself so that neither of them are awkwardly off-balance and Hunk squeezes him in. He feels a little bad, because his paladin armor must be uncomfortable for Keith and he’s probably snotty (he definitely feels a salty tear-itch starting up), but he’s not sure how else to say thank you and make it mean this much.

When he lets go Keith passes Hunk his helmet and stands up. “You think you can try again?”

Hunk pats his own cheeks a few times, and takes a deep breath.

He smiles. “I’ll give it a go.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!
> 
> the way i wrote it i feel like it ends up mirroring itself? like, hunk goes to keith, says his name a couple of times, keith feels apologetic... then keith goes to hunk, says his name a couple of times, and hunk feels apologetic. but like both times they shouldn't feel bad!!
> 
> anyway they deserve to be happy, and i'm glad i got to write this bc hunk needs hugs/emotional support too!


End file.
